Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-02-25

road travel Is not 50 easily 1lnlShed. IL
has only just begun. Railroad managers
may as well note that it is destined to be
"a good deal of a shower
There were two radical sources of dan
ger i'm the White river sltuation-firs the
bridge, second the lighting and heating.
Nearly all the Central Vermont bridges
of any length are deck bridges of timber,
single track, with no side rails and no pro
lection at the approaches. 1t is said that
there were guard tlmbers eight inches
square, Is inches outside the rails, but
rising only two inches above the rails,
manltestly inadequate provision We
trust Gov pingrees commission will pro.
perly characterize the danger of these
structures aud of their unguardod APP
proaches. Their construction assumes
that Il train never leaves the rails, never
breaks IA wheel, never breaks pistOn-rud
or drops break rod, and never meets a
| thousand breakages, which as Il matter of
fact frequently occur. Any one OF these
breakages occurring Oh the bridge or still
more within 800 feet of either end would
require the interposition of miracle to
prevent loss of life. The approaches. if
anything, are more dangerous than the
bridges themselves. Now every railroad
in Vermont always has plenty of rock at
hand, which would make excellent ma
sorry wall to protect the approaches to
these high bridges. a car thrown oft
would not then 90 plunging over the
| brink. The expense could not he serious.
The Central Vermont between Windsor
and burlington has seven or eight bridges
over the White and WinOOski rivers. and
the protection of them in this way would
probably not cost so much as two passen-
ger cars At any rate the public would
gladly swap plush for protection
The unprotected deck bridges are not
safe, whatever railroad bridge builders
]
railroad car rests on narrow support.
Probably onethird of its weight hangs
outside of the base and it require but
comparatively small swaylug motion to
tOpple it over, when all guards intended
for the wheels alone cease to be of any
value or to afford safety Let us look at
facts as they are. y vehicle designed for
our safest streets modelled upon a railroad
car would be instantly regarded as fool
hardy and ridiculous. Nobody would
trust himself in it.
Deck bridges to be made safe should
have a floor practically solid so that car
thrown off the rails would continue to run
upon a close network of ties. The RuU-
rOud GU.CttC says: If any questions con
corning permanent way may be regarded
as settled they are those concerning the
necessity of Il strong and virtually cOutiu-
uOus floor for bridges, of having the out
| side guard tmbers extend beyond the
ends of the bridge and OF having them
| ilared out at the end, and Ot having an
iron Nshaped device or its equivalent be
tween the rails to bring back into line
any wheels that may on reaching it he
not over two feet four inches inside of
the rail they belong on Bridge sleepers
ought not only TO be close together-sav
| five inches in the clear-but to be blocked
so that there shall be no possibility of
their being crowded up together by a de
| rallied wheel Outside guard timbers
| w to hA nj Lon md
strong enough in themselves, but must be
| bolted down so that they will break be
fore they Will Weld their position and
allow cars to strike the truss lin the case
of through bridges These tmbers and
| the inner guard rall should extend each
way from the bridge at least the mini
mum distance in which passenger train
is likely to be stopped after discovery of a
derail ment or defect in a vehicle. If a
train must be ditched, and is to get out
side of the guard timbers, all possible
means should be taken to have this hal e
pen on favorable ground. 1t is very like
ly that in this case the loss of life and
limb might have been mitigated if the
cars had rolled down the bank, instead of
dropping perpendicularly from the bridge
and probably large share OF high
bridges of this kind are so situated that a
moderate length of timber guard would
extend back to a cut or TO comparatively
easy embaukmeut We see in this case
although the wise precaution of running
at low rate of speed had been adopted
and was regularly practiced, yet a consid
cradle distance was run after the cause OF
the trouble began to take effect. The
precious interval between the time thai
some one felt the shock and started tol
the bell rope, and the moment that tn,
engineman heard the gong and applied
the brake, may have been ) to 10 or NOR,
seconds during which the train very like
i | lV ran from 1OO ia JOO feet and This ~ =
lance very often makes all the difference
between life and death. The trouble be
/ gan 525 feet at least before the bridge wa
reached. and if the brake had been applied
| instantly 1t should have easily stoppe,
, the train in considerably less than that
distance. When the " clearinghouse auto
matte brake was first brought ont it ha,
an attachment which was intended t,
strike the ground whenever the car iumu
ed the track, and release the air at once
but we hear nothing about this appliance
, of late"
! In regard to heating and lighting, Their
is no safety in fire aud no necessity TO
fire. Ii must 90 before another winter